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Cassius (Insect King)
Main_Page > Vampire: The Requiem > Bloodlines > The Cassius > [[Cassius (Insect King)|'The Cassians' by Insect King]] Parent Clan: Ventrue (Special) Nicknames: The Patricians Covenant: The ancient Bloodline of Cassius is mainly involved in the Invictus as it was the first of the modern Covenants to be birthed by the fall of the Roman Camarilla. A few are located in the Crones trying to keep old religions from being forgotten. Individual Cassians will join with any Covenant they deem worthy of their heritage. Appearance: The Cassians do not Embrace their stock from mere old money sources but rather they collect lost royalty. It seems eugenic nostalgia is a common theme that forces the Cassians to attempt to save forgotten royal lines from complete destruction. Many Cassians still originate from the Mediterranean but have enough diffusion to accept parentage from anyone as long as they have established influence and old money. Havens: The Cassians also indulge in fine estates but not necessarily. Many Cassians have havens styled in modernistic architecture, although they have a penchant for specific ethnic decorations. Most Cassians are known to decorate their rest areas as elaborate burial chambers. They are dead and they are taking it with them. Background: The Cassians are a strange Bloodline. Previously it was thought they were exclusive to embraced Roman patricians, almost the withered remnants of a Clan, the family twin of the Ventrue. The true history of the Cassians is too blurry and vague with anecdotal legends to accurately document. They only reliable facts exist after the fall of the Camarilla. One common legend is that the Cassians were the Bloodline of an aged, retired senator Antonius Cassius. The senator did much to improve relations between Camarilla vampires and the immigrants by de-emphasising the habitual imperialism suffered by his peers. The true nature of the Cassian’s odd heritage has been disclosed as a prototypical Discipline. There are stranger stories and myths, ones which support the unusual nature of the Cassians but are dismissed as fallacious heresy. Modern day Cassians are involved in a new meta-genealogy, trying to recreate new royal bloodlines from various rich faux-aristocrats. It is a monumental task but it does warrant some success here and there. Character Creation: Cassians tend to steer for mortals who do not necessarily have money or power but who have status that comes from breeding and old links to royalty. Cassians are never ones to be too picky as modern royal equivalents such as oil barons and wealthy merchant families are also fair game. Although the Cassian’s are considered a Ventrue Bloodline, this is not strictly true: Cassian’s can not only embrace mortals directly into their Bloodline, but they can in turn adopt any Ventrue Bloodline as a Bloodline. While Ventrue can theoretically adopt Cassians as a Bloodline and gain Auspex as their fourth Discipline but this has proven impractical. Ventrue can theoretically adopt Cassians as a Bloodline and gain Auspex as their fourth Discipline but this has proven impractical. An even stranger event is that Cassians can adopt the Ventrue Clan as a Bloodline and gain Animalism as a fourth Discipline but this is a very rare occurrence. Clan Disciplines: Auspex, Dominate, Resilience, Initiatory Embrace (See below) Weakness: The Cassians share the same mental fragility as the Ventrue: a -2 to humanity rolls to avoid Derangements. Cassians do not possess a second weakness unless they adopt a secondary Ventrue Bloodline (See below). Organization: As a semi-Bloodline, the Cassians exist as grandparents within the House of Ventrue. Some Ventrue perceive the Cassians to be either an honour to their Clan or an embarrassment to have this Bloodline-Clan as part of their heritage. Most others are unconcerned as they would be about any other Bloodline branch off the family clan. The Cassians have no true organisation of their own outside of the Ventrue Clan. Concept: The Heir to a Forgotten Throne; an Extremist Monarchist; a Vitae Genealogist; a Part-Time Aristocrat; the Playboy Anachronism. Special Features Initiatory Embrace: Cassians are able to sire directly into their own Bloodline as if they were a Clan. Secondary Bloodlines: As mentioned above the Cassians are able to adopt any Ventrue Bloodline as their own as if they were Ventrue. The Cassian-Ventrue Bloodline: An even stranger phenomenon is the ability for Cassians and Ventrue to adopt each other as Bloodlines. However it seems the penchant for inbred degeneration is as prevalent for this incestuous Kindred union as it is for mortals: A Ventrue-Cassians Clan-Bloodine combinations suffer a -4 on Humanity rolls to avoid derangements.